1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cooling of computing environments and more particularly to water cooling of large computing systems.
2. Description of Background
The industry trend has been to continuously increase the number of electronic components inside computing systems. A computing system can include a simple personal computer, a network of simple computers, or one or even a network of large computers that include one or more central electronic systems (CEC). While increasing the components inside a simple computing system does create some challenges, however, such an increase can create many problems in computing systems that include one or more large computers. In such instances many seemingly isolated issues affect one another, especially when packaged together in a single assembly or networked or housed to other systems that are stored in close proximity. In addition, the increased density of these systems give to the increase in their energy consumption and, consequently, the rise in their internal temperatures due to the collective heat. Consequently, the issue of heat dissipation has become a priority in the design of these computers.
In the past air cooling concepts has been used extensively in the design of these computers. However, as the advancements in heat sink and fan design is beginning to outpace air cooling capabilities, further alternatives are becoming more attractive. In recent years, liquid and especially water cooling have become a more attractive and viable option. The advantages of fluid/liquid and specifically water cooling, are many including fluid/liquid/water's higher specific heat capacity, density and thermal conductivity. In addition, such cooling methods will allow the heat to be transported away from the source to secondary cooling surfaces that allow for larger and more optimally designed cooling techniques when feasible. Unfortunately, running liquids and especially water through a device that is largely powered by electricity can be risky and dangerous. In order to reduce a risk of leakage it is optimal, in these situations, to use as few fittings and connectors as possible in such cases with respect to piping that provides the coolant to the system. Unfortunately, this is not always feasible and therefore, there is a need to provide safety features when there is a need to provide piping especially those with many fittings and connectors to reduce risk of leakage. In particular there is a need for a method and apparatus that can control liquid/water sprays that might occur when quick connects (hereinafter QC's) fittings are used to help adapt pipings of different sizes or shapes to one another, or to regulate fluid flow during the use, mating or unmating of them within a computing system.